As a boy, one of my favorite times in school was when we’d get a new
Scholastic News book "catalog.” I would pour over the pages picking out
which books I wanted and filling out the order sheet. And as soon I got
them, I was lying under the covers with my nose buried in a book.

Unfortunately, not all boys have that kind of enthusiasm for reading.
For several decades now, boys have scored lower on reading assessment
tests than girls. Boys also take longer to learn to read than girls, are
less likely to actually read and to value reading and are more likely
to label themselves as "non-readers” (up to 50% of high school age boys
consider themselves as such). Non-reading boys do poorer academically
and end up as non-reading men (women read almost twice as many books as
men).

What’s the problem? Some of it may be biological (boys’ language
skills develop slower that girls). But a lot of it is sociological. Boys
may see reading as a passive and thus sissy activity. Boys also lack
male reading mentors-their librarians and teachers are often female and
it’s mom that reads to them. And in the name of gender-neutrality,
teachers are foisting books on boys that they simply do not like.

But parents are to blame too, often trying to make their sons read
"important books” to build their character. Dad loved some long tome as a
boy and wants junior to come to an equal appreciation of it.

But reading experts all agree that boys need to be allowed to pick
the books that really interest them. Of course it’s okay to make
suggestions to your son about things he might like-boys very much value
the opinion of other boys and men in making their reading selections. So
here are 50 books that many boys and young men will really love. We’ve
included some classics, but we also threw in some more modern and
accessible choices-after all, not every boy has the desire or the
aptitude to dive into Dickens.

Finally, while we had boys about the ages of 9-15 in mind when we
made this list, I’ve always considered the distinction between adult and
young adult literature to be an unfortunate and artificial one. Putting
together this list I remembered just how good these books are and I
can’t wait to read them again as a man. Whether you’re 12 or 52, grab
one of these books and a bag of cookies and head out to the treehouse.

by Gary Paulsen

Pretty much every boy’s favorite book. When the pilot of the small
plane of which he is a passenger crash lands in the Canadian wilderness,
13 year old Brian Robeson must survive with only his wits and a
hatchet.

Utterly alone, Brian must learn to rely on himself. Gripping and
vividly told, every boy pictures himself in Brian’s shoes and wonders
whether he would have what it takes to survive.

by John Knowles

Set at a boys prep school on the eve of World War II, A Separate
Peace centers on the friendship of Phineas and Gene. Phineas’ seeming
perfection creates a jealously in Gene that results in a tragedy that
will forever change both of their lives. A piercing look at both the
light and the shadows of friendship and humanity.

Every boy wishes he were Finny but knows he’s more like Gene. This
book has stuck with me ever since reading it as a young man and remains
one of my favorite until to this day.

by Neil Gaiman

Take Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book,
replace the jungle with a graveyard and the animals with ghosts and
you’ve got Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. The book begins with the
mention of the murder of a family, but quickly moves on from there and
is not a gruesome tale inappropriate for youngsters. The sole survivor
of the murder is an 18 month old baby, who toddles away to a graveyard.
Here the cemetery’s ghosts and ghouls adopt the boy, give him a name
("Nobody” as he’s like nobody else in the graveyard), protect him from
the still on the loose killer and teach him the life lessons that only
the dead can know.

It takes a graveyard to raise a child and the cemetery is a great
home, but eventually Bod, as they call him, must deal with the world
outside of its borders. Spooky, magical and engrossing, it’s a must for
all boys who like ghost stories (so pretty much all boys). Be sure to
check out Gaiman’s other great books like Neverwhere and Anasi Boys.

by Daniel C. Beard

Long before The Dangerous Book for Boys became all the rage ,
there was the American Boy’s Handy Book. Every father and grandfather
should have this on his shelf, waiting there for a boy to pull it off
and start leafing through. Dozens of awesome (and unlike another book,
some actually dangerous) hands on projects for boys to tackle
from how to build kites and forts to how to rear wild birds and trap
animals. Originally published in 1882 and still a must for every boy
today.

by Norton Juster

The story of a boy who’s boring life is interrupted by the appearance
of something strange and unusual that transports him to a magical
place. It’s a premise that underlies a myriad of children’s books, but
few are as creatively constructed as The Phantom Tollbooth.
Young Milo finds a tollbooth in his room, gets in his toy car and drives
into another dimension. Boys will love the strange adventures Milo
experiences, while older kids and adults can enjoy the witty satire and
clever puns.

by Mark Twain

One of the great American novels. Young Huck Finn escapes from his
abusive father by taking off on a raft down the Mississippi River. He is
joined by Jim, an escaped slave. The two set off on a grand adventure
full of close calls and interesting characters. With both wit, action
and fun, coupled with an undercurrent of serious themes, Huck Finn is a multi-layered masterpiece for young and old.

by Harry Mazer

The classic tale of the collision of a boy’s idealistic view of war
with it’s ugly reality. Yet the book manages to avoid being a tired
cliche. 15 year old Jack Raab lies his way into the Army Air Force and
finds himself flying bombing missions over occupied territory. On his
25th mission, his last mission before being sent home, his plane is shot
down and he is taken prisoner in a German POW camp. A fictional story
and an easy read, but historically accurate and realistic in its
details. Be sure to check out other books by Harry Mazer; his A Boy at War series is a painless way to teach boys some history.

by The Boy Scouts of America

If you have a son in Scouts, he’ll definitely dig this book. Today’s
Scout manual is definitely watered down compared to the first edition.
The first edition manual is crammed with info on tracking and trapping
animals, building shelters from scratch and sailing.

Additionally, it has stories of bravery and adventure that inspire
boys to be great men. Something today’s manual is sorely lacking.

by Stephen Crane

Known as a war book, The Red Badge of Courage is really a
coming of age story set on the battlefield. Young Henry Fleming leaves
his mother to fight for the Union Army. His question of whether or not
he’ll have the courage to stand and fight is answered in the negative
when he flees from his first skirmish. Fleming resolves to redeem
himself during the next battle. A story not only of the tragedy of war,
but the struggle to replace pride, weakness and rationalization with
bravery and personal honesty.

by Richard Adams

One of my favorite books as a boy-who knew the lives of rabbits could
be so engrossing? I’m sure it’s rife with rich symbolism and whatnot to
mull over, but it’s one of those books that creates a world so rich and
evocative that it’s best to let yourself get totally wrapped up in it
instead of constantly searching for deeper meaning. When a prophetic
rabbit correctly foretells that their warren will be destroyed, a band
of rabbits travel in search of a new home and encounter dangerous and
interesting obstacles along the way. Some authors can’t make human
characters as interesting as these rabbits.

by John Bellairs

If you’ve got a kid that love scares, suspense and mystery, don’t get
em’ mediocre schlock like the Goosebumps series. Check out the books of
the wholly under-appreciated John Bellairs. In the Johnny Dixon series,
Johnny is somewhat of an outcast who finds a friend and mentor in
Professor Childermass. Together they investigate dark and spooky
mysteries. Bellairs’ writing is thoroughly engaging, his plots rich and
his characters endearing. Also check out his two other equally good
series featuring Anthony Monday and Lewis Barnavelt.

by Mark Twain

The essence of boyhood distilled, transcribed and bound. This classic
is packed with humor and wit and filled with episodes familiar to any
American-Tom convincing his friends to whitewash the fence, Tom
overhearing his own funeral, Tom exploring a cave with Becky. Twain
called it a "hymn to boyhood,” and it’s a song that can be sung over and
over.

by C.S. Lewis

A fantasy world, talking animals, magic, good and evil….C.S. Lewis
packed a treasure trove of interesting themes into his seven book
masterwork. The books tell the story of group of children’s adventures,
travels and battles in the world of Narnia. While the stories have
become known as a Christian allegory, CS Lewis denied writing them with
that intention. And they can be enjoyed both by readers looking simply
for an engrossing tale and those searching for deeper layers of meaning.
The only question is, what order should you read them in?!

by Arnold Sevareid

Before he became a manly anchorman, Eric Sevareid did exactly what
every boy dreams of doing-setting out on a wild, unstructured, crazy
adventure. After graduating high school, Sevareid and his friend William
Port decided to create their own rite-of-passage and set out on a 2,250
mile canoe trip from central Minnesota to the Hudson Bay. With only an
18 foot canoe, $100 and some bad maps, the boys spent four months racing
the oncoming winter and paddling through dangerous rapids, inclement
weather and hungry mosquitoes, barely surviving with their lives. Drawn
from the journals they kept, Canoeing with the Cree was published in 1935 and remains a simple, but fantastic travel-adventure book.

by Lois Lowry

What would you be willing to give up to live in a pain-free world, a
world without chaos or disease or war? At what point would the sacrifice
become too great to live in such an idyllic state? The Giver
describes a world where the community leaders make all the decisions for
the people-who to marry, what job to take, even who should live or die.
People take pills to suppress their passions. No one can remember a
world before these external controls were put in place…except The Giver,
who chooses 12 year old Jonas to be the new Receiver of Memories. When
Jonas realizes that the people have given up their freedom, emotions and
humanity in exchange for equality and peace he is faced with an
enormous decision. A truly profound and thought-provoking book.

by William Golding

What is the truth of human nature? Away from society, freed from the
constraints of external authority, how would men, boys, really act? Not
too well, according to William Golding. A group of shipwrecked boys must
forge a new life on a deserted island as they wait and hope to be
rescued. But the pretense of civilization quickly devolves into
savagery. While the boys fear the attack of a beast, it is their inner
beasts which will cause their destruction. It’s a dark book, not the
kind one delights to pick up and read over and over again. But every boy
must read it once.

by Mike Lupica

Knowing that boys love sports, there are children’s authors who churn
out one cookie cutter sports story after another. And then there is
Mike Lupica. Lupica gives the kind of vivid play by play details that
every good sports book needs, while also filling out his characters and
their stories off the field with enough interest and realism to make the
reader care. Heat’s plot is of the Law & Order ripped from
the headlines variety; Cuban-American Michael Arroyo is a star pitcher
who’s chances of leading his team to the Little League World Series are
jeopardized when he is accused of being older than 12. Not only that,
but Arroyo’s parents are dead and he must keep social services from
finding out. Sounds schmaltzy, but Lupica manages to keep it topical and
relevant without being heavy handed. If your boy digs it, be sure to
check out the myriad of Lupica’s other sports-themed offerings.

by Jack London

Every boy feels the call of the wild. He feels the desire to strike
out and be free and yet he soon learns the rules of society and the
consequences of stepping too far out of line. For the rest of his life
he will feel the desire to be primal pull against the need conform. In
Jack London’s magnum opus, he explores this idea through the lives of
dogs in the Alaskan Klondike. The dogs, like men, must fight to survive
and to lead, in a world that is often unkind. London’s manly writing is
economical and concise and yet powerful enough to compel you draw a
blanket around yourself to keep out the cold and dark of an Alaskan
night.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Boys love treasure. Boys love pirates. Boys love Treasure Island.
Pretty much everything we think of when we think of pirates comes not
from the pages of history but from this book-treasure maps with "X”
marking the spot, deserted islands, peg legs, parrots and so on.
Stevenson insisted that there be no women in the book besides Jim
Hawkins’ mother at the beginning, making the book a testosterone-driven,
swashbuckling good time. American novelist Henry James praised it as "perfect as a well-played boy’s game.” I couldn’t agree more.

by Roald Dahl

After his parents are killed in a rhinoceros accident, James is sent
to live with his wicked aunts. Lonely and unhappy, he happens upon a
mysterious man who gives him magical crystals he promises will
completely change James’ life. But James accidentally drops the crystals
on a peach tree, which slowly begins to grow into a gigantic peach. One
day James climbs inside, the peach rolls away from his ordinary life
and he embarks on a grand adventure with 7 oversize insects: Centipede,
Earthworm, Grasshopper, Glow-worm, Miss Spider, Ladybug and Silkworm.
More humorous and exciting than you even remember; a true classic.

by Louis Sachar

Sent to "Camp Green Lake” for a crime he didn’t commit, Stanley
Yelnats finds himself at a juvenile detention facility located in a hot,
dry, wasteland. Stanley quickly learns the daily routine; get up every
day and dig a five foot deep by five foot wide by five foot long hole.
The camp’s warden tells the boys that the digging is designed to reform
their wayward characters, but Stanley soon discovers that she has some
other purpose in mind. With both depth and realism and action and magic,
it’s an extraordinarily good page turner.

by E.B. White

While often overlooked in favor of White’s other classics-Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little-this
is my personal favorite and a great one for boys. A classic story of
the relationship between father and son, father and son swans that is.
Louis is a trumpeter swan born without the ability to make a sound.
Unable to honk and attract the swan he loves, his father steals a
trumpet to give his son a voice. Incredibly grateful, Louis works to
repay his father’s debt. Swans don’t seem that manly, but this is a
great book about individuality, courage and overcoming life’s
challenges.

by S.E. Hinton

It’s incredible that S.E. Hinton starting writing this book when she
was 15, but it certainly explains her uncanny ability to capture the
angst, alienation, emotion and immediacy of adolescence. Such pitch
perfect tone has rightly catapulted The Outsiders to classic
status. Say "greasers and socs” or "Ponyboy and Soda” or "Stay gold,”
and everyone immediately knows what you’re talking about. While every
young man will probably be assigned this book in school, it’s a great
book to read on your own when you’re not thinking about turning the
themes into a term paper.

by Robert Cormier

Should we dare to disturb the universe? Even when the consequences of
stepping out of line can be extremely grave? Jerry Renault is an
ordinary high school student. The annual fundraiser comes around, where
the students are expected to sell chocolates to raise money for the
school. The Vigils, a secret society of sorts, which rules both the
students and the faculty, assigns students different tasks, simply to
belittle them and prove their authority. They require Jerry to refuse to
sell chocolates for ten days. Jerry complies with their order, but
after the ten days is over, he continues to refuse to sell the
chocolates, earning him the ire of the Vigils and the rest of the
school. How far would you be willing to stick with your convictions,
even when everyone turns against you? Powerfully written but bleak and
dark, this book is best for older boys.

by Harper Lee

There are books that discuss profound themes, but do so at the
expense of plot and character development. And there are page-turners
with riveting plots that excite your mind while you read but then leave
you empty when you finish. And then there is To Kill a Mockingbird.
A literary masterpiece which weaves subtle lessons on racism,
tolerance, innocence and guilt and right and wrong with an engrossing
plot and memorable characters. No wonder Ms. Lee made this her only
book; some things you can’t improve upon.

by Bill Watterson

As a kid, I was a huge Calvin and Hobbes fan. I’d read the
strip every day in the paper and buy all the books that came out.
Admittedly, a lot of the jokes and content about politics and social
issues went over my 9-year old head, but as a boy I could appreciate
Calvin’s enormous imagination where his stuffed tiger pounced on him
after school and together they hatched plots and threw snowballs at the
annoying girl. It’s been almost 15 years since the last Calvin and Hobbes
strip was published, so there’s a good chance a young man in your life
has never had the opportunity to read such a fine comic. Introduce them
today with one of the many Calvin and Hobbes books-I think this one is the best.

by Orson Scott Card

Many a man’s love of sci-fi was born in boyhood with the reading of Ender’s Game.
In the 22nd century of earth, the future of mankind is threatened by
ant-like aliens called Formics or buggers. Fearing for the survival of
the planet, earth puts it’s trust is an international military unit
called the International Fleet. The IF believes that the earth’s only
hope is to train children to become military geniuses. Thus, six year
old Ender Wiggins is chosen to attend Battle School to be trained to
take on the aliens. Being the most intelligent of the geniuses causes
the other students to resent him, but despite challenges Ender quickly
emerges as a great leader in the mock battles the children must compete
in. But the games have more serious consequences than he realizes.
Written in a plain, straight-forward manner, many boys will love it,
some will hate it and most will at least be given some food for thought.

by Gary Paulsen

The 11 year old son of a couple of "puke drunk” parents is sent to
live with some distant relatives, the Larsens, on their family farm.
Befriended by his 9 year old and Tom Sawyer-esque second cousin, Harris,
the two have a summer of humorous adventures as the narrator gets
thrown head first into life in the country. Harris’ wild, boyish spirit
is infectious and helps the narrator kick off his shoes and the reader
to live vicariously through the both of them.

by Wilson Rawls

Write a story about the bond between a boy and his dog and you’re
halfway towards a great book. Add good writing, great lessons and a
touching plot and you’ve got the makings of a perennial favorite. Billy
desperately wants a pair of redbone hounds to hunt coons, but his
parents can’t afford them. So Billy works hard for two years to save up
the money to buy them himself. Together he and Little Ann and Old Dan
explore the Ozarks of Oklahoma ever in search of their prize. But where
does the red fern come in? According to an old Indian legend, a red fern
can only grow where an angel plants it and marks sacred ground. Where
does one grow in the story? Why, you’ll have to read it to find out of
course!

by Rudyard Kipling

What list for boys would be complete without something from Rudyard Kipling? While The Jungle Book certainly gets more fanfare, for my money I’d recommend Captains Courageous.
It’s the perfect story for our times. A rich, coddled, spoiled boy
named Harvey Cheyne falls off a steamship and is picked up by a fishing
boat. His snootiness is forced to give way to the new realities of his
life-on this boat, if a man does not work, he does not eat. These salty
fishermen give Harvey a kick in the pants and an actual punch in the
nose and soon he learns to put his shoulder to the wheel, embrace both
responsibility and adventure and work hard. The tale of brat turned man
is one we all can cheer. With archaic dialect and language and a lack of
real "action,” the story is not as accessible as more modern books, but
the dedicated boy will be richly rewarded.

by Lynne Reid Banks

Every boy wonders and hopes that his toys secretly come alive when he
isn’t watching. For his birthday, Omri gets an old cupboard from his
brother and a plastic Indian figurine from his friend. He is unable to
unlock the cupboard until his mom gives him a key she has held onto
since her childhood. Omri is in for the surprise of his life when he
discovers that locking the Indian and then other figurines in the
cabinet brings them to life. His initial excitement is short-lived
however, as he must struggle to keep the secret of the cupboard’s magic,
come to the realization that he’s playing god with real people and
decide what to do with his "creations.” It’s the kind of magical,
well-written book that will weaken the resistance of even the most
reluctant reader.

by Tony Earley

The Blue Star is a sequel to Tony Earley’s Jim the Boy,
but this is the better of the books. Many books set in the World War II
era, written by authors who never experienced it first hand, try too
hard to recapture the setting by pumping every aspect of the characters’
lives full of drama and importance. But Earley seems to get the tone
just right, understanding that life still went on in many of the usual
ways, with many of the usual feelings while the storm of war gathered.
The story follows a teenage boy in a small town who falls for a girl
who’s beau has already enlisted in the service. Simple, quiet,
excellent.

by Walter Farley

Boys saves horse. Horse saves boy. So begins this classic tale of
grand adventure and classic boy/animal bonding. Young Alec Ramsey is
shipwrecked with Black, a wild horse and the two end up stranded on a
deserted island. Boy and horse are rescued and brought to the States. A
retired horse trainer sees great racing potential in Black if his
wildness can be harnessed. Together he and Alec work to turn Black into a
thoroughbred, all leading to the race of the century when Black takes
on two champions as the proverbial and literal "dark horse.”

by Theodore Taylor

Journeying back to America from the West Indies in 1942, 11 year old
Phillip is blinded and set adrift when the boat on which he rides is
torpedoed by Germans. Phillip ends up on a life raft with Timothy, an
old black ship hand and Stew Cat. Exiled together on a small island,
Phillip must deal with his blindness, overcome his prejudice towards his
fellow castaway and learn how to survive and stand on his own two feet.
A classic tale of adventure, tolerance, self-reliance and friendship.

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Even if a boy isn’t that big into fantasy literature, he can still enjoy The Lord of the Rings
series. J.R.R. Tolkien masterfully creates a world where hobbits,
dwarfs and elves join together to fight the forces of evil. Loyalty,
duty and bravery are reoccurring themes throughout the three books. And
the story’s main protagonist, Frodo Baggins, teaches us that we often
don’t choose our calling in life, it chooses us. And when it does, give
it all you got.

by Conn and Hal Iggulden

The American Boy’s Handy Book for the modern age. Sturdy,
well-designed and tactilely (is that a word?) pleasing, the book
contains fun hands-on projects like making secret inks and a bow and
arrow, how-to’s on various games like marbles and chess and interesting
boy knowledge about clouds and poems and battles. Of course one
criticism of the book is that it seems like nostalgic men buy and read
it more than actual boys, but it’s worth a purchase even on the slimmest
chance that it will at least momentarily unhook your kid from the
tethers of his Xbox.

by Ralph Moody

With a name like "Little Britches” and a reputation for being akin to Little House on the Prairie
for boys, one might be tempted to skip this series. But that would be a
big mistake. Packed full of lessons in the values cherished by the
Americans of yesteryear, is may be the best series for boys you’ve never
heard of. In 1906, at the age of eight, Ralph Moody and his family
struck out for the frontier and the ranching life in Colorado. After a
lifetime of triumph, heartache and honest toil, he decided to write down
his experiences in this autobiographical series. Follow little Ralph as
his father schools him in the lessons of manliness, good character,
responsibility and resiliency and prepares Ralph to take his place as The Man of the Family.

by Madeleine L’Engle

Warmer than typical sci-fi, touching on the battle between good and evil without being heavy-handed, A Wrinkle in Time
is an unique book that easily won a place in the hearts of kids
everywhere. Charles Wallace and Meg Murry are a brother and sister who
have special gifts but are written off by others. Together with neighbor
Calvin O’Keefe and aided by three angelic beings, they go in search of
their missing father who has been trapped on an alien planet controlled
by an evil, disembodied brain. An interesting enough plot to keep a
younger boy reading, enough symbolism and allegory to keep an older boy
thinking.

by Jean Craighead George

Did you ever try to run away from home? Did you tie a red bandanna to
a stick, throw in some Oreos and head down the street? You probably
didn’t get very far, but you always wondered what it would have been
like to strike out and keep on going. My Side of the Mountain is the
story of boy who not only hears the call of the wild, but heeds it. Who
not only hides out in the wilderness, but thrives there. 15 year old Sam
Gribley takes up residence in the hollow of a tree and learns to
survive along along with a pet falcon. Need I go on? You had me at
falconry, My Side of the Mountain, you had me at falconry.

by Art Spiegelman

If you think about Family Circus when you think about comics, you’re
missing out on some of the many excellent graphic novels out there.
Arguably one of the best and an excellent introduction to the form is Maus.
It would seem no platform was less appropriate to tell the tale of the
Holocaust than comics, yet somehow the juxtaposition of something we
associate with frivolity with one of the gravest periods in history
makes the tragedy more powerful and real than any number of more serious
tomes on the subject.

Girls have Nancy Drew; boys have the Hardy Boys. Follow brothers
Frank and Joe as they investigate the exciting mysteries in Bayport (an
amazingly crime-infested town).Although they frequently encounter great
dangers, their pluck and, of course, hardihood, allow them to emerge
unscathed and solve every case. The series has gone through many
iterations, but the ones published between 1927 and 1959, largely
written by Leslie McFarlane, are absolutely the best and the only ones
worth reading. Beginning in 1959, the books began to be revised in
effort to make them more PC, remove anything too violent and attract
readers with a shorter attention span. The result were sanitized, dumbed
down books that McFarlane considered "gutted.” So buy the vintage books
or those from Applewood Books which has reprinted the original 1-16.

by Howard Pyle

I’m pretty sure every boy goes through a knight phase. Stories of
swords, armor, wizards and dragons are the perfect fuel for a boy’s
imagination. And there are few better vehicles to stoke that imagination
that Howard Pyle’s rendition of the legendary stories of Arthur and his
Knights of the Round Table. It is surely not the most accessible book;
Pyle used the kind of archaic English true to that time, but difficult
for ours. But he also wrote it with the young reader in mind and so a
dedicated boy will not find the task of reading and understanding
insurmountable and the book is packed with illustrations to provide
visual interest. Of course, also check out Pyle’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, probably the better book (but knights are cooler, so they got the shout out).

by Roald Dahl

There are times where the movie is so famous, so classic, that people
almost forget that a book version exists. Such is the case with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
But while the movie (the original, of course) is a genuine gem, the
book, as it always is, is even better. Dahl has a knack for taking the
things that fill kids’ imaginations and building a story around them.
Every boy loves candy and every boy would love to tour a candy factory
as fantastical as Willy Wonka’s. Charlie Bucket gets a chance to when he
finds 1 of the 5 golden tickets that allow entrance into this world of
wondrous, sugary delights. A book with a message that everyone can get
behind: Snotty brats will eventually get their comeuppance while the
good in heart will be justly rewarded.

by Clive Barker

Clive Barker for the younger set. In this engrossing fable, ten-year
old Harvey is bored with his life until a strange being shows him the
way to the enchanting and magical Holiday House. Each day cycles through
all four seasons and the children can celebrate Halloween every evening
and Christmas every night. It seems like a place of endless fun and
excitement, but of course, not everything is as it seems…..

by S.E. Hinton

For a lady, S.E. Hinton sure knew how to tap into the mind of a teenage boy. In That Was Then, This Is Now, she returns to her favorite subject-seemingly parent-less boys trying to find their way in an unkind world. Characters from The Outsiders
show up in the story as do the similar lines between Socs and Greasers.
But while this book is not as good as that classic, nor is it a trite
regurgitation of it. The plot instead is quite compelling-two boys,
Byron and Mark, who are life-long friends with a bond like brothers,
reach a crossroads in their friendship. Mark is being pulled into the
violence and crime of the streets, while Byron wants to make something
of himself. Their friendship is changing and Byron must decide a
question that pains every man, "When does loyalty end?” Believable and real right up until the not so-happy ending.

by Charles Dickens

Everybody love Dickens’ Christmas Carol (I wonder what he would have thought about his work being turned into 3-D!). And everyone is assigned Great Expectations and/or The Tale of Two Cities in high school and yet poor David Copperfield
is often ignored or mistaken for a modern magician. Which is a shame-it
is just as good, on some days I might say even better, than his more
famous works. And it’s a perfect starting point for a boy who is ready
to dip his toes into Dickens. Certainly more challenging than a choose
your own adventure book, but quite possibly the thing to change a boy’s
mind about "classic” literature. Dickens story is a coming-of-age tale
that does not make the common mistake of unrealistically having a boy
come of age all at once. Instead we are allowed to experience the great
humanity of David Copperfield and the wonderful cast of characters that
challenge him, love him and help him grow into a man.

by Carl Deuker

Like Mike Lupica, Carl Deuker manages to mix the kind of
pitch-perfect accounts of sports action that is the hallmark of sports
literature, with realistic and compelling characters and plot lines. The Heart of a Champion
combines baseball with a story about the influence and impact of
fathers on their sons, making this another classic entry in that
distinctively male genre of stories: baseball as life. Seth’s father
died when he was six and his difficultly in coming to terms with his
death has set his life adrift. But then he meets Jimmy, who has a father
problem all of his own-his dad is overbearing and an alcoholic. Jimmy’s
friendship helps Seth get on track with baseball and school, but when
his parents divorce, it’s Jimmy who’s life starts to fall apart. The
boys’ choices soon lead them in very different directions.

by Graham Salisbury

Next to Gary Paulson, Graham Salisbury was one of my favorite authors as a boy. Blue Skin of the Sea
is set in Hawaii in the 1950s and 60s and follows the life of a
teenager named Sonny Mendoza and his cousin, Keo, as they come of age.
Despite coming from a family of a long line of fishermen who braved the
ocean for their living, Sonny fears the ocean, but doesn’t know why. At
its core, Blue Skin of the Sea is about the self-realization
every young man must go through as they make their way from boyhood to
manhood. At least that’s what I got out of it when I read it as a 12
year old.

by Fred Gipson

Like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Old Yeller is a
great book that is often obscured by it’s cinematic counterpart. But
instead of popping in the DVD, give your boy the book to read. Often
remembered as a story of the bond between a dog and a boy, it’s really a
coming of age story. 14 year old Travis Coates lives with his family in
the hill country of Texas during the 1860's. When his father must leave
home for a time, he leaves Travis to "act a man’s part” and take care
of the family. He does his best, but comes to need the help of and love,
Old Yeller, a dog who wanders into their lives. But when Old Yeller
gets rabies, Travis learns firsthand one of the most difficult virtues
of true manhood-sacrifice.

by Brett and Kate McKay

Okay, so I’m a little biased about this one. But I honestly think our
book is a must-read for boys and young men. It’s never too early for a
boy to start thinking about and learning what it means to be a man. Even
if you’re good parents, it’s hard to think of everything a boy needs to
know. Help your son learn essential classic skills and manners and
become part of the generation that will revive the lost art of
manliness.

These 50 books just scratched the surface. There are a TON more great
books for boys out there. Share your favorites in the comments. And
yes, this list is Western-centric, so please suggest some great young
adult literature from your favorite obscure Mongolian author.